Daily Current Affairs Updates–16th December 2016:

Daily Current affairs News Updates about the National and International events were listed here. Candidates those who are preparing for IBPS/SBI/PO/Clerk exam and all other competitive exams can use this.

NATIONAL:

India’s first residential transgender school to come up in Kochi

i) India’s first residential transgender school, Sahaj International School, will come up in Kochi. The school, to be inaugurated on 30 December, will initially accommodate 10 students. Transgender activists Faisal CK, Maya Menon and VijayarajaMallika made this announcement on Thursday.

ii) The residential school will be led by six transgenders who working with the TransIndia Foundation. The students have been selected from different sections of the transgender community, including a disabled person and a migrant.

Punjab to provide free LPG to BPL families missed in SECC 2011

i) Punjab will provide free LPG connections to those BPL families, who were missed in the 2011 Socio Economic Caste Census on the lines of PradhanMantriUjwalaYojana, a decision to this effect was taken at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal yesterday evening.

ii) Aadhaar numbers of the beneficiaries have been seeded at the portal and the list has been de-duplicated with LPG Consumers Data provided by public sector oil companies to weed out identified LPG consumers from this list.

Haryana becomes first state to launch Mahila Police Volunteer initiative

i) Haryana became the first state in the country to launch Mahila Police Volunteer (MPV) initiative for safety of women.

ii) It was launched by Chief Minister ManoharLalKhattar. Mahila Police Volunteer is a joint initiative of Union Ministry of Women& Child Development and the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.

Majuli set to become country’s first ever carbon neutral district

i) Assam government has launched ‘Sustainable Action for Climate Resilient Development in Majuli’ (SACReD, Majuli) to make river island Majuli country’s first ever Carbon Neutral district by 2020.

ii) The project has been initiated by Assam’s department of Environment and Forest to combat climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It presents a vision and roadap for a carbon neturalMajuli.

i) Prime Minister NarendraModi has described the Lucky GrahakYojana and DigiDhanVyaparYojana as a strategic push towards increased cashless transactions.

ii) Announcing the government’s decision, NitiAayog CEO Amitabh Kant said both the schemes will cover small transactions between 50 and 3,000 rupees to encourage every section of the society to move to digital payments.

ii) The tagline for the scheme, named Annapurna Rasoi Yojana, is: “Sabkeliyebhojan, sabkeliyesammaan (Food for all, respect for all)”.

iii) Cost of a meal will come to Rs 23.70 for a meal and Rs 21.70 for breakfast and of this, Rs 8 and Rs 5 will be borne by the customer, respectively, while the rest will be subsidized.

INTERNATIONAL:

Indian-American woman elected as Mayor of Californian city

i) For the first time, an Indian-American woman has been elected as the new Mayor of the key Californian city of Cupertino, globally known for its Apple headquarters. SavitaVaidhyanathan, an MBA who worked as a high school Math teacher and an officer in a commercial bank as well as in non-profit management, was sworn in last week in a ceremony attended by her mother who had flown in from India.

ii) Savita is the first Indian-American Mayor of Cupertino, which according to Forbes is one of the most educated small towns in the country with local public schools ranking highly.

India tops Asia in innovation chart

i) India has emerged as the most preferred destination for innovation in Asia and third biggest globally, with ‘Silicon Valley’ of East Bengaluru leading the charge, says a research by global consulting major Capgemini.

ii) The number of active incubators in the country increased 40 per cent to 140, with a bulk 66 per cent of them in tier-II and tier-III centres.

5th Edition of India-Arab partnership conference held in Muscat, Oman

i) The 5th India-Arab Partnership Conference was held on December 14-15 2016 in in Muscat, Oman.

ii) The Conference was organized in collaboration with the Oman Foreign Ministry, Arab League Secretariat, the Ministry of External Affairs in India, the General Union of Chambers of Commerce and Industry in the Arab Countries (GUCCIAC) and Federation of the Arab Business (FAB).

iii)Theme of the conference: ‘Partnership towards innovation and cooperation in IT’.

Trump picks David Friedman as US envoy to Israel

i) US President-elect Donald Trump has chosen right-winger David Friedman as America’s next ambassador to Israel. The 57-year-old lawyer is strongly critical of the long-held US goal of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

ii) He also supports Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank, which the Obama administration considers an obstacle to peace. A liberal Jewish group opposed his nomination.

iii) Conservatives welcomed it. Mr Friedman said he looked forward to working from the US Embassy in Israel’s eternal capital, Jerusalem”, a statement that will anger Palestinians.

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY NEWS:

Andhra Pradesh records 5% more growth than all India rate

i) Andhra Pradesh has registered 5 per cent more growth in comparison to all India growth rate, this was revealed at a meeting held with Principal Secretaries, Secretaries and Heads of various departments at the Velagapudi Secretariat yesterday during which Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu discussed the achievements of the first half during the year 2016-17.

ii) A detailed roadmap was laid to achieve targeted growth rate of 15.28 per cent. Mr. Naidu said the target set for the first half during 2016-17 was 16.42 per cent but due to insufficient rainfall and other bifurcation issues, the state has achieved 12.23 per cent growth rate. He directed the officials to come up with action plans which are easy to execute in order to achieve the targeted growth rate of 14.41 per cent in the second half of 2016-17.

Paytm launches ‘Each one, teach one’ to increase digital inclusion

i) Paytm, a digital wallet which is on all time high use has announced a new program to increase the digital inclusion in India under which it is calling consumers and merchants all versed with Paytm to teach others to use Paytm efficiently.

ii) The campaign aims at the increase the use of digital wallet and transforming the user behavior to smoothen the country’s current shift from cash to digital payments. Paytm has announced a grand prize of Rs. one core and many other prizes such as Motorcycles, smartphones, laptops for the users as the part of the drive.

India, ASEAN set target of $100 billion trade to be achieved by 2020

i) India and ASEAN have set a target of trading at 100 billion dollar to be achieved by 2020. Currently the trade between ASEAN and India is 57 billion dollars.

ii) Talking to the Indian Media Delegation in Jakarta, the Deputy Secretary-General, ASEAN Mr. AKP Mochtan said, India is one of the most important power in the region and will be a significant dialouge partner.

iii) ASEAN and India will celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2017, which will be attended by the head of states of all the ASEAN countries. Mr.Mochtan also said that in view of the anniversary, India and ASEAN are planning to enhance people to people contact.

APPOINTMENTS:

Nigeria’s Amina Mohammed named UN’s Deputy Secretary-General

i) Incoming UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has announced the appointment of Nigeria’s Environment Minister Amina Mohammed to be the UN’s deputy secretary-general.

ii) Senior Brazilian foreign ministry official, Maria LuizaRibeiroViotti, will serve as Guterres’ chief of staff while Kyung-wha Kang of South Korea was appointed to the new position of special advisor on policy.

iii) Guterres has made gender parity a priority of his tenure which begins from first of January.

Govt appoints Sunil Arora as IICA Director General

i) Former Information and Broadcasting Secretary Sunil Arora has been appointed as the Director General and Chief Executive Officer of the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs, a think tank that comes under the Corporate Affairs Ministry.

ii) An IAS officer of 1980-batch Rajasthan cadre, MrArora retired as Information and Broadcasting Secretary earlier this year and is presently serving as an advisor at PrasarBharati.

iii) IICA focuses on matters impacting functioning of corporates and work towards capacity building with various stakeholders including regulators and professionals, among other activities.

AWARDS AND HONORS:

The First Indian Cricketer to Make It to ICC’s Women’s Team of the Year 2016

i) In a historic moment for women’s cricket in India, Indian batswoman SmritiMandhana became the only Indian cricketer to be named in the first ever ICC Women’s Team of the Year 2016.

ii) The 12-member team will be led by Stafanie Taylor, who led the West Indies to their maiden ICC Women’s World Twenty20 title in India earlier this year.

iii) The women’s team of the year has been added to the list of awards to acknowledge and appreciate the outstanding performances of women cricketers over a 12-month period.

ii) According to ICFA, the Leadership Awards jury conferred on Tata the ‘Lifetime Achievements Award 2016’ for his transformational role in scaling Tata Group as the globally admired group during his stint of two decades as Chairman.

OBITUARY:

Veteran Hollywood actor Bernard Fox dies at 89

i) Bernard Fox, who starred as Dr. Bombay in Bewitched, has died from heart failure in Los Angeles. He was 89.

ii) He is best known for his roles on the ABC series Bewitched and James Cameron’s Oscar-winning picture Titanic. Fox also made appearances in several British films and TV shows.